In the Scrantlin Cemetery in Jackson County stands a monument with the inspiration “Brothers Killed By A Train, May 27, 1922”. The double monument erected by a grieving mother to her two sons killed at Hoxie sits at the back of the cemetery.
The story goes, on May 27th 1922, as the engineer for the northbound Missouri-Pacific train #38 made its midnight run through Hoxie, he spotted something on the tracks ahead.
The engineer on the train saw two young men lying motionless across the tracks as if they were asleep, he described blowing the train whistle while desperately trying to stop it, but to no avail.
The two young men never moved or flinched according to witnesses. The pair’s bodies were badly mangled according to news reports of the day.
The two boys, identified as brothers Tommie Goad, age 19 and Noah Goad age 16. The boys had been working for a relative in the area and were said to be traveling home to Bradford for the weekend to visit family and would return for work the following week.
News of the boy’s deaths traveled quickly, the boy’s mother, identified as Mrs. Ollie Scantlin arrived in Hoxie with an uncle and claimed the boy’s remains.
Investigations by local law enforcement and the railroad failed to explain how or why the boys would sleep on the tracks.
The boy’s mother, Mrs. Scantlin always suspected foul play, family suspicions arose about the boys being placed neatly on the tracks, side by side.